Written by

Mamie Nash

The Tennessean

Country music legend Garth Brooks insisted during testimony in U.S. District Court in Nashville on Tuesday that the $226,000 that is the subject of a lawsuit against his former employee was a loan, not a gift.

Dressed in jeans and a gray blazer and carrying his trademark black, wide-brim cowboy hat, Brooks testified that he loaned Lisa Sanderson close to $250,000 through his motion picture and television production company, Red Strokes Entertainment Inc., to cover lawyer fees when she fought for the custody of her child from 2005 to 2007.

“In my opinion she was going to battle for her son,” Brooks told the seven-member jury in the first day of what is expected to be a three-day trial. “She asked if I would pay her lawyer bills, and I said yes.”

However, in at least one pre-trial document, Sanderson characterized the money as a gift and described the nature of the relationship between her and Brooks as having developed into an “extremely close personal friendship.”

Sanderson’s lawyers insist that no formal documents about a loan exist and that Sanderson is owed a pension after the closure of the company in 2010.

Brooks testified before U.S. District Judge Aleta Trauger that he had detailed the repayment plan for the loan multiple times to Sanderson over the phone.

He also said that to his knowledge, there was no formal document drawn up addressing repayment of the loan.

“I believed she would pay the loan back because we were buddies,” Brooks said. “I know that sounds like a stupid reason, but that’s why.”

Brooks also testified that Sanderson charged the company credit card when making personal purchases during two periods of time.

According to testimony from Brooks’ accountant and business manager, Cheryl Harris, Sanderson charged 30 purchases to the card in 2001, totaling about $15,000. She did it again in 2009, spending $10,000 in two days at a jewelry store, in addition to other personal charges.

Harris told the jury that Sanderson paid back most of the charges in small monthly increments and that no interest was added to the amount.

Brooks went on to testify that he and Harris came up with a plan to assist Sanderson in the repayment of the loan, a plan that she has claimed not to have agreed to.

“I told her that me and Cheryl had figured out how to pay the debt and button everything up really nice after we closed the California branch of the company,” Brooks said.

“If we paid her for the next two years, that’s $250,000,” Brooks testified, adding that Sanderson received an annual salary of $125,000, plus one to two $15,000 bonuses a year and medical benefits. “We would cut the check to her but put the net balance toward her debt, after taking out taxes. Cheryl had set this up so Lisa could walk away scot-free.”

Brooks insisted that there were never any additional funds owed to Sanderson for a pension or retirement plan.

The payback plan “was the pension plan,” he said.

“When she told Mr. Brooks about the legal fees (involving the child custody battle), he immediately said he wanted to pay,” defense attorney Allison Hart said in her opening statement.

“She was hesitant at first,” Hart said, “because she did not know how much they would be, but he told her that it was a gift for her and her son. She gratefully accepted, and for over four years there was never any mention of her paying back the money.”

According to Harris, Red Strokes Entertainment Inc. was a two-employee company, which lost about $8 million throughout its 18-year existence. It produced only two television movies in that time.